I Wanna Be Me: Rock Music and the Politics of Identity

Product Description As someone who feels the emotional power of rock and who writes about it as an art form, Theodore Gracyk has been praised for launching arguments destined to change the future of rock and roll. In I Wanna Be Me, his second book about the music he cares so much about, Gracyk grapples with the ways that rock shapes - limits and expands - our notions of who we can be in the world. From Library Journal In this follow-up to Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock, Gracyk (philosophy, Minnesota State Univ., Moorhead) proves himself to be an extraordinary cognoscente of rock music. With his knowledgeable and well-presented arguments, he challenges readers to reconsider the stereotypes that many modern titans of cultural studies have slapped on rock music, e.g., that it isn't really music, that it is both sexist and racist, and that its commercial success and easy coziness with the corporate world clearly prove that it is naught but a Machiavellian scheme calculated to separate young fools from their (parents') money. To its great credit, this book also convincingly counters the charges of Timothy Taylor (among others) that Paul Simon's use of South African music and musicians in creating his lauded Graceland is blatant neocolonialist cultural exploitation. Gracyk's extensive evidence includes innumerable examples of African American "pure blues" musicians appropriating the bases of their classics (e.g., Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene") from "white" rural sources. His credible conclusion? Such cultural blends are a natural and integral process that have always been central to pop music. This book belongs on the shelf of almost every academic library and will also be an outstanding asset to either popular music or cultural studies collections. Bill Piekarski, Angelicus Webdesign, Lackawanna, NYCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From the Publisher From the Sex Pistols and Eminem to Bonnie Raitt and Ani DiFranco, rockers contribute to our cultural capital. From the Inside Flap "I Wanna Be Me is a fine book that grapples with a number of contemporary debates about the cultural significance of rock music, as well as broader issues of interpretation of texts and artworks. It challenges some of the influential but extreme views that have dominated discussions of political identity in connection with art. Not everyone will agree with Gracyk at every stage. He is more comfortable with the mass art character of rock than are many culture critics. I applaud the book for taking strong, but considered stances on issues of interest within a number of fields." —Kathleen Higgins, Professor of Philosophy, The University of Texas at Austin, and author of The Music of Our Lives About the Author Theodore Gracyk is Professor of Philosophy at Minnesota State University, Moorhead, and the author of Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock.